Paris Agreement

Trump decision a
death blow,

says CSE

Centre for
Science and Environment (CSE) says the accord will
have no meaning, now that the world’s second
largest polluter has pulled out of it.The US is the
world’s largest historical and the second
largest current polluter, says the latest CSE
press release.

Without the
substantial emission cuts that the US is
responsible for, the objectives of the Paris
Agreement to restrict global warming to 2 degree
Centigrade cannot be met.

Trump has
already announced stopping of funding to UNFCCC
and IPCC and has backtracked on the financial
commitment of USD 2 billion to the Green Climate
Fund (GCF). These domestic measures makes it clear
that emissions would increase in the
US. The US has conveniently shifted the burden
of addressing climate change on to other
countries

New Delhi, June 1, 2017:
With the US president’s latest assault on
the global fight against climate change, meeting
the objectives of the Paris Agreement will become
an uphill task. Trump has sounded the death knell
for the Agreement: said Sunita Narain, director
general of the New Delhi-based non-governmental
organisation, Centre for Science and Environment,
responding to the US withdrawal from the Paris
Accord.

The objective of the
Paris Agreement is to prevent an increase in the
global average temperature, and keep it well below
2°C. The Agreement, considered a landmark move
forward, was adopted on December 12, 2015 by 195
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), replacing its
predecessor Kyoto Protocol. The Agreement was
finally ratified on November 4, 2016.

Said Chandra Bhushan,
deputy director general, CSE: “The USA is
not only the largest historical emitter of
greenhouse gases, but also one the major current
emitters. Without the active and ambitious
contribution from the US, any action to combat
climate change under the Paris Agreement will be
insufficient by a huge margin.

He added: “Even if
other countries, including the developing
countries, raise their ambition, they would not be
able to fill in the void left by the US. It is,
therefore, not sufficient to shift the burden of
addressing climate change to other countries --
including China and India.

The role US has
played in global climate change:

Largest contributor to
climate change: USA is the largest historical
contributor to climate change, responsible for 21
per cent of the current carbon stock in the
atmosphere. It is currently the second largest
polluter in the world, and has the highest per
capita emissions.

Weak climate agreements:
To accommodate US interests, countries have worked
towards making climate agreements weak. The Kyoto
Protocol had weak targets. Likewise, to bring back
the US under the UN climate framework, the Paris
Agreement was made a voluntary, bottom-up
decentralised regime with no emission reduction
commitments for countries and no punitive measures
if countries failed to meet their
targets.

US climate commitments:
Under its climate action plan, the US had pledged
merely 26-28 per cent emission reduction below
2005 levels by 2025. On the 1990 baseline, the US
will cut emissions by a mere 13-15 per cent by
2025 and 23-27 per cent by 2030. In comparison,
the EU-28 will reduce 40 per cent below 1990
levels by 2030. The pulling out of the Paris
Agreement means that the US will not fulfill its
already weak commitments.

Financial commitments in
jeopardy: In its federal budget, the US has
announced that there will be no further funding to
IPCC and UNFCCC. It has also vowed not to fulfill
its support commitment of USD 2 billion to the
Green Climate Fund (GCF). This would mean that
funding to the GCF, meant to help developing
countries to address climate change, would suffer
tremendously.

US domestic measures: By
adopting a slew of measures domestically which
includes revoking its Clean Power Plan (CPP),
Trump has made his agenda clear – unfettered
expansion of domestic fossil fuel production and
repealing anything that is against it.

This is not the first
time that US is opting out of an international
climate agreement. It pulled out of the Kyoto
Protocol saying that emerging economies do not
have quantified emission targets; now it has
pulled out of the Paris Agreement calling it
unfair.

“Climate change is
a global challenge. The US cannot continue to keep
the world hostage. Pulling out of the Paris
Agreement would mean that with 5 per cent of the
world population, the US will continue to
jeopardise the remaining 95 per cent. Countries
need to hold the US accountable for decisions that
have a global impact,” said
Narain.

Trump’s decision
has come at a time when there has been an alarming
increase in both the frequency and magnitude of
climate-related impacts across the globe, calling
for more concerted efforts to address climate
change. “The future of the climate change
regime has been shackled with this announcement.
We are already on the path to a dangerous
temperature rise of even up to 3 degrees
Centigrade. The only foreseeable future course
would be for the remaining countries to come
together to modify the Paris Agreement to make it
effective,” said Bhushan.